Diver missing - Longstone Island, England

[DandyDon]

Those Royal National Lifeboats and crews are amazing. All charity. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives. Still, it would help if divers carried PLBs.

Major search off Seahouses for missing diver | RNLI

rnli.org

At 11:39hr on Sunday 17 October 2021, Seahouses Lifeboat Crew were preparing to hold a Crew Hog Roast Social Event that lunchtime, when their pagers sounded for immediate launch of both lifeboats. UK Coastguard had received a Mayday distress call from a dive boat, just north of Longstone Island, reporting a missing diver. Both Lifeboats launched and joined other vessels in the area, to carry out an extensive and detailed search with Seahouses All Weather Lifeboat acting as “On Scene Commander”. Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 199 from Prestwick was also tasked, with the Maritime Coastguard Rescue Coordination Centre at Bridlington, coordinating the rescue resources. Local coastguard officers and the police were also in attendance at Seahouses Harbour.

After an extensive search, the Prestwick Rescue Helicopter 199 went to refuel at a local airfield, and the Rescue Helicopter 912 from Hull joined the search. Local charter boats and dive boats had also joined to assist the search. So far, nothing has been found, and the search will continue for the present time.

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[Jack Hammer]

Hope they turn up safe

 

[DandyDon]

If he'd carried a registered PLB, he'd have slept in his own bed last night. They work well in an active search. If he made it to the surface and managed to float of course. If not, the choppers and lifeboats aren't likely to help.

The island is famous for Grace Darling - Wikipedia who sadly only lived for a few years after she became famous as a heroine.

It's 6:52pm there now, well past sundown, and he's been lost for a day and a half. They've had choppers and several volunteer lifeboats searching, but if he is on the surface, I don't know how long a drifting diver can survive in the North Sea.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Don, there is nothing in the report to indicate he made it to the surface and is lost at sea. More likely he never left the bottom or only made it part way before something happened and he sank back to the bottom. Therefore your mention that if he had a PLB he would have been okay has no real basis for fact. Not every dive problem is solved by a PLB or CO monitor.

 

[DandyDon]

Don, there is nothing in the report to indicate he made it to the surface and is lost at sea. More likely he never left the bottom or only made it part way before something happened and he sank back to the bottom. Therefore your mention that if he had a PLB he would have been okay has no real basis for fact. Not every dive problem is solved by a PLB or CO monitor.

Yes, you're right. I did edit my last post.

They gave the search a great effort, but it's over. Farne Islands missing diver search called off after two days

 

[Khrissi]

Sad to see this on BBC news as we were there couple of weeks before ( not diving but met a few of the divers quayside) all looked well equiped and knowledgeable on diving in that area, many instructors and DMs from local dive groups - can only wonder if he was in a net tangle as there is a lot of boat fishing around there. Very sad.

 

[BlueTrin]

Hopes fade for missing Farne Islands diver

The search for a diver missing off the Farne Islands since yesterday (Sunday 17 October) is continuing, but hopes of a successful resolution are fading.

www.scubadivermag.com

The search for a diver missing off the Farne Islands since yesterday (Sunday 17 October) is continuing, but hopes of a successful resolution are fading.

According to reports, the Coastguard received a Mayday call from a dive boat near the Longstone lighthouse in the Farnes late Sunday morning. A multi-agency search was initiated, involving lifeboats from Amble, Craster, Seahouses and Berwick, Coastguard helicopters from Prestwick and Hull, Maritime Coastguard Rescue, the police and local charter vessels and dive boats. The search is continuing, with Northumbria Police Marine Unit set to dive in the area, but Amble lifeboat coxswain Paul Stewart said that with the strong and varied tides around the Farnes, the diver could be some distance from the actual dive site.

 

[Bearded Diver]

 

[DandyDon]

Missing Farnes Diver's Body Found Off Norway | Scuba Diver Mag

A body wearing a drysuit recovered from the sea off Norway this summer has been identified as a British diver who went missing off the Farne Islands in

www.scubadivermag.com

A body wearing a drysuit recovered from the sea off Norway this summer has been identified as a British diver who went missing off the Farne Islands in October 2021.

According to Dykking Magazine, investigation manager Kjell Arne Sandal from Mandal Police Station said that the man, who was recovered from the sea near Lindesnes Lighthouse – several hundred miles from the UK – was identified after using DNA, which was matched against missing persons cases in other countries via Interpol.

The DNA matched exactly with the diver in his 60s who was reported missing at 12.45pm on Sunday 17 October 2021 after a dive at Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland.

As reported by Scuba Diver at the time, the missing diver report initiated a multi-agency search involving lifeboats from Amble, Craster, Seahouses and Berwick, Coastguard helicopters from Prestwick and Hull, Maritime Coastguard Rescue, the police and local charter vessels and dive boats.

The massive operation was stood down at 1pm on the Monday after a fruitless search.

Sandal said that the man's relatives in England have been notified by British police.

 

[uwxplorer]

I am not versed in forensic, but for a body to show up hundreds of miles from the place the diver was last seen, it would seem that it had to float and drift there. This leads to two possibilities (and variants): the diver made it to the surface and remained there, or the body started at the bottom, decomposed and the gases inflated the drysuit, bringing it to the surface. In the first case, if the diver was alive and conscious, a PLB might very well have saved his life. He would not be the first diver to go missing after having failed to get back to his boat, as so many stories have told us on this board.
I do carry a ACR PLB in a waterproof canister in my drysuit pocket at all times.